Pine-Pacific's Premier Performance: King's Cup 2013

Two X-55s "match race" in Phuket
Xena (blue kite) and Pine-Pacific battle it out at King's Cup, 2012.
Note the different spinnaker set-ups: us with pole, Pine with bowsprit.

This year, Xena didn't make the trip down to Phuket, so we didn't get the chance to tussle again with our sister ship, Pine-Pacific, the "other" X-55 in Asia, as we did at last year's King's Cup.
Pine cleaned up in the Premier IRC Division, taking all six races, some by as much as 30 minutes corrected.  Their only competition was the lovely grey Swan 75, Silandra V, but Pine beat her handily, including on the water in Race 4.
As Phuket Wan news says:

In Premier class, Pine-Pacific has dominated their class all week, and took two more victories again today. The team have been in a ''class of their own'' all week, and finished well ahead of nearest rival Silandra V.

So well done to Ithinai Yingsiri and his crew!
Also in the Division, another old sparring partner, the First 53f5 Baby Tonga, now owned by our neighbour Garry Smith, under charter to an Aussie crew, as Sailing Adventures and they too made it to the podium in Race 5; well done lads and ladies.

Baby Tonga crew pick up their second place silverware.  Our mate and
neighbour, Garry Smith in the middle.  Sorry don't know the others...

In other Div's news, of boats we know:
IRC 0: the big boys.... Neil Pryde racing again in his much-campaigned Wellboune 52 Custom, Hifi, came in third to two TP52s, just pipping another Hong Kong sailor, Frank Pong on his RP Custom 75, Jelik into fourth.
IRC 1: Long-time Xena cremate, Stevo, was racing on the Patrick Pender & Jamie McWilliam's Ker40, Signal 8 picking up a podium-finish third, in the hotly contested IRC1 Division.
IRC 2: Pete ("Sorro") Sorensen in his newly-bought Beneteau First 44.7 Fujin (Matt Allen's ex Ichi Ban), scored a second overall in their division IRC2.  Sailing mate Rob's Sailplane, a First 47.7, was chartered to Russian Kirili Sakhartsev -- whose folks had looked after us so well on our Russia trip in May this year -- and finished a creditable 4th in the division.
IRC 3: Hong Kong boat, the A35 Red Kite II owned -- and raced so well -- by Anthony Root and crew, won handily, tussling along the way with Matt Allen's new Ichi Ban an Adams 10.
LATER:

Baby Tonga, 2nd place, R5, on the King's Birthday....
Owner Garry gets his just desserts, from Dagmar..

Around the Island Race, Hong Kong, November 10th 2013

L to R: Angel, TC, Zoe, Noel, Garry, Dagmar, Jing, Claes,
Jade, Steve, Biggus, Stevo.  Post race, Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club

We raced Xena in the annual Around the Island Race (ATIR), this year with over 250 entries, in about 20 classes, everything from Flying Fifteen dinghies to Frank Pong's Custom 75-footer.
A great race this year, with plenty of wind, rarely below 15 knots, averaging in the 20s, with occasional gusts over 30 knots.  This was the wind being sucked in from just north of East, by the super typhoon Haiyan, which has wreaked havoc in the Philippines... an ill wind...  Rather shocking and sobering to think, as we enjoy our race, such devastation was happening in our neighbour country.... our thoughts surely with them, as must also be our help...

LATER: The best way to donate is via our Club, which will match your donation one for one.  The link is here.

EVEN LATER: if you're not a Club member and wish to donate,  send a cheque payable to "Royal Hong Kong Charity Foundation Ltd" or  transfer money directly to the Foundation's HSBC account number 652-214743-001.  Receipts can be issued at request to email here.

Only one slight area of less pressure, as always south of the Island around Cyberport, where it dropped to 5-10 knots, but we never stopped, and made it round the island in just 3 hours 15 minutes, which averaged 8 knots even, for the 26 nautical mile course.  And we were fastest speed on the water in our division.
In our Class we came second, to the Beneteau First 50 Lighthorse.  We beat them by 10 minutes on elapsed time, but needed to be a bit more to beat them on corrected, which put us 4 minutes behind them.  Oh well -- I still recall we raced that boat last year in the China Coast Regatta, beating them five out of five races, so it will all be on next time we meet them.
Special guests on board Xena yesterday: Claes Tallberg, who is Commodore of the Nyslandska Jaktlubben in Finland and is in Hong Kong with about 20 other Commodores for the ICOYC Commodores’ Forum. To whom we said: "Tervetuloa"! (which is, I trust, "welcome" in Finnish).  And two youngsters, "Sharks" they call them, who are on the Club's Youth Sail training program: Freya and Thorwen (piccie below), who were making a transition to a big boat from 29ers (Freya) and Optimists (Thorwen).
Results (Click "IRC Cruising")
Above photo missing a few of the crew: MC Danger, myself, who took the photo and the two "Sharks", young sailors on RHKYC's sail training program:

Freya Darnton and Thorwen Uiterwaal-Postma
young "Sharks" with RHKYC youth training courses.

And another of the crew:

Only difference with one above, is I'm in this one...

Beauties and the Best... Stevo with Dagmar and Jing.

Some photos from Cess:

Hold on tight to that mainsail, Gaz!...

Whoops!....

Post mortem.... Jing, Biggus, Forse, Stevo, Zoe

Angel and TC

Dagmar and Forse, with prize giving lady.  RHKYC Poolside Prize giving
11th November 2013.

Pleasure boat industry is being stifled by government inertia

Kwun Tong typhoon shelter.  Courtesy SCMP

I've written about this before.  The government here is now stuck in a mode of the least done the safer...
Below, a detailed look at the issue of lack of moorings in Hong Kong, by Howard Winn of Lai See column in the South China Morning Post of 24 October.
The link is here ($). [PDF (free)]

There has been increasing concern over the past few years over the shortage of moorings for private pleasure vessels. Indeed, it is apparent that government intransigence is strangling the local boating industry and stifling Hong Kong's potential to be a thriving boating hub. There are about 18,000 local craft of which about half are categorised as pleasure vessels. Of these, nearly 700 are yachts, about 2,500 are motor boats and junks, and about 4,500 are essentially small speed boats. Many of the latter can be kept on land and don't need moorings.

There are about 2,800 recognised private moorings which exist in private boat clubs and typhoon shelters, which falls a good deal short of the demand. Outside these, there are also a number of designated mooring areas around Hong Kong but according to the Marine Department no more moorings can be laid as a result of objections from "villagers" and other curious brotherhood organisations requiring payment for loss of ancestral fishing rights and so on. Increasingly, boats are anchoring in various bays around the city. The mooring shortage has been exacerbated by the department's ban on subletting and sale of moorings.

Walawala 2 abandons ship -- all safe

Walawala 2, with Steve Manning helming, Stevo to his left

Not exactly breaking news this, I'm afraid, but posting for the record, and with thanks that all are well.  Another case of good training and coordination of emergency measures leading to all safely rescued (Tipsy Frenz also lost at sea, June 2012)  Great news on that front, as we know a number of the crew on board.  Kudos, to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club and HK Government's marine emergency bodies, especially the Government Flying Services.

According to one crew member, they were having a quick trip, in winds of 18-25 knots at 140-150 TWA, boat speed 15 knots topping at 21 knots, in control with full mainsail and A6 kite, when they had the rudder incident, quick ingress of water, losing it quick and had to bail out...
SCMP Report ($) [PDF]

Report from the RHKYC [Link] [PDF]:

At 0135hrs local hours on Friday 18 October, Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club (RHKYC) Sailing Manager, Alex Johnston, received a distress call via satellite phone from the skipper of Walawala 2, Steven Manning, reporting that the yacht had lost its rudder and was taking on water.  Manning also advised that there were no injuries to the 10 crew. 

At this time the crew activated the yacht’s EPIRB (Emergency Position Indicating Radio Beacon).

Life in the Xenaverse

An article about the wonderful Warrior Princess, muse and inspiration for our own boat's name, from the equally wonderful Jennifer Sky:

....  Xena [the show], however, was also special. It was feminism at work, with female lead characters who were unapologetically powerful and sexy. During my time on the show [as the "Amazon Goddess" Amarice], on six episodes from the fourth to the fifth seasons, I kicked butt. Off screen, I was trained in numerous fighting techniques, in archery and horseback riding. On screen, I hung with a Christ figure called Eli; I had a same-sex lover and a boyfriend of a different race than mine; I threw bombs and walked along high wires. I killed so many bad guys that they began to look the same. In fact, they were the same — 20 or so stunt men and women who did the most difficult tricks and falls, making the rest of us look good.

And I did it all in a wig of wild red hair and leather short-shorts.
Xena, which ran for six years before it ended in 2001, was a show that charmed even as it taught its audience a thing or two. It never reached too far beyond its kitschy foundations: in one episode, characters were crucified; in another, we did musical numbers. But it managed to bring home thought-provoking story lines about same-sex love, about religion, about soul mates and manifest destiny. Gender was not relevant in the Xenaverse. There, a girl or a boy could be a warlord or a farmer, a bard or a sad sack needing protection....  

[Read it all. PDF]

"Give HK people a boat policy anchored to real needs"

Many yachts have been moved into dry dock at the Royal Hong Kong
Yacht Club.  Photo: K.Y.Cheng, courtesy: SCMP

In today's South China Morning Post, an article by Paul Zimmerman, maybe some good news on an issue I've written about before: the severe shortage of berthing and mooring facilities in Hong Kong.

The Hong Kong government has belatedly acknowledged the need for a fundamental review of policy and management issues relating to vessel berthing space. The review will explore solutions for better management of berthing spaces for local vessels and the challenges faced by the Marine Department.
The marine industry wants this review to include supply, given the dramatic shortfall of over 20,000 berthing facilities for leisure, recreational and sports vessels. A champion is needed within government to ensure waterfront land and seabed is set aside to address this.

Read the rest of the article [pdf]....

Phuket Race week

Moya Hin approaches top mark, Pete J at helm, yours truly, Forse, on Main,
Kevin on Jib/brace, La on checkstay, Paul on the keyboard.  Photo from regatta site.

I'm down at Sanwa cove in Phuket for Phuket Race week, an "off-season" regatta in the SW monsoon; hence based around the SE corner of the Island.

With Peter Jones, wife La and their crew on Moya Hin, a Bashford + Howison 41.  Lovely boat and crew, good winds in the 10-20 knot range with no holes. Met Pete Jones through sailing mate Rob, of the Vlad-Moscow trip...
Pete ("Sorro") Sorenson and Gordie Ketelbey walked away with first, notching up 8 bullets, basically unbeatable.  They're racing in their new purchase, the old Ichiban, ex-owned by Matt Allen, a Beneteau 44.7 raced successfully for years around this area, now renamed "Fü Jin", (風神) or wind god, in Japanese, keeping that Japanese vibe ("ichi ban" = "number one").
"Moya Hin", meantime, means "Rock Doctor" (or "Dr Rock", which is maybe cooler....), in Lao, as Peter Jones is a geologist, exploring for minerals in Laos.
The next top four after Fü Jin, had some close racing, sometimes just seconds of time in it. We were the big improvers up to the second-last day, in contention for a podium finish overall, but a touch of the wobblies on the last two fresh-breeze races led us to drop down a place, one point off fourth.
Enjoyed by all, with thanks to Pete J and team.

Moya Hin approaches bottom mark, Day 2.

Fü Jin and Moya Hin, Day 3

Marine Department on the warpath

Live-aboards at Discovery Bay Marina

Unintended consequences of the tragic crash of a ferry with a pleasure boat in October last year, from a couple of sources in the shipping industry:

To Russia with Voxy

The road follows the railway, mostly.  The only difference was that we went
Perm-Kazan, rather than through Kirov (in the NW).  Click to enlarge.

First post here.

For the past three weeks have been sailing across the steppes of Russia -- from the Vladivostok in the Russian Far East to Siberia and the Urals, and thence Moscow -- with sailing mates Gordie, Rob and Joe.  

10,221 kilometres on the trip-meter, from Vladivostok to Moscow, and we've made it in our trusty Voxy. Now just back in Hong Kong, and some random photos below.... [and for gluttons for punishment, more piccies at Picasa]

Four blokes in a Voxy: Rob, Pete, Joe, Gordie in the hiker's hut, hills of Krasnoyarsk.
We were served tea by the caretaker Viktor who was born and brought up here
and spends all his days in the mountains.  

BTW: I've been asked about "Treacling" (from my last post):  Rob tells me it's the Yorkshire habit of putting the car in neutral going downhill, to save fuel.  Yorkshire folk are renowned for being careful with money, if I can put it like that....  There's also "extreme treacling", which is, in addition to being in neutral, also turning off the engine -- which can, of course, be a bit tricky, what with steering locking up 'n all... if not outright dangerous.
We had to Treacle on the road to Chita, east of Lake Baikal, as there's a bit of road, about 400 km of it, where there's not a single gas station: and the little Voxy only has a range of 410km.  Rob was Treacling like crazy for a whole afternoon's driving...
There are more photos below the fold..

Treacling in Siberia... Sailing lads cruise Russia

Sailing lads on the road...Joe, Rob, Gordie, in Vladivostok, 8 May 2013

[Second part of this trip report is here]

We're now in Krasnoyask, which you can see on the map below, Siberia's third-largest city.

So, we're about half-way on our current drive across Russia: Vladivostok to Moscow.  10,000 km, give or take.

The idea was Rob Bottomley's, a Yorkshire-based sailing buddy of Xena crewmate Gordon  ("Gordie") Ketelbey, with whom I also did the Cape to Cairo Rally in 2011.  Rob is here with his son and fellow sailor Joe.  Yorkshire lads.

We're in a Toyota Voxy that we (Rob and Gordie, that is) bought in Vladivostok, a right-hand drive number imported from Japan, for which the aim is to sell her in Moscow.  She's no Land Cruiser, but a plucky road warrior for all that.

While the Trans-Siberian Railway has been in place for century or more the road through has only recently been completed -- the last bit, the Zilov Gap, driven by Putin in 2009, in one of his he-man stunts.  By the way, and for what it's worth, no Russian in the Far East or Siberia has had a nice thing to say about the he-man... 

Since the road has only recently(ish) been completed, there's very few who have done the trip by car.  In most of the places we've stopped we're the first tourists they've seen, and we ourselves didn't see another tourist till Ulan Ude, 3,800 km west of Vladivostok (in between Irkutsk and Chita on the map below).

And what's this "treacling" business?? Answer later (maybe; I'll see how I feel)...

As always, click on the photos to enlarge.

This map says "Early 20th Century", but nothing much has changed on the
rail since then, other than the new BAM railway north of Lake Baikal.
The Road more or less follows the train's track.
Newby writes about it amusingly in "The Big Red Train Ride" of 1978.

Klaus' fabulous photos

"Sunset Skyline over water"

Some really fabulous photos from Xena crewmate Klaus, here.  Thanks Klaus!

Sail Twist and Wind Shear

Remember we've had a few discussions on board and in the pub.... about Sail Twist and why, sometimes, do we do better on one tack than another?  MC, one for you, in particular, esp on Sail Twist!

Here's an interesting article, courtesy Jamie McWilliam on the RHKYC Big Boats Forum; thanks Jamie!

"G Unit" winning on Katusha

From regular Xena tactician Stevo, news of exploits of sometime Xena crew member, "G" (aka Matt Kelway), in the RC 44 Cup at Trapani, on Katusha.  That's G above on the rail furthest forward....  There'll be none of that hikin' on the rail on Xena, thank you very much.... at least for the more mature crew folk....

News and more great photos here.  Hat-tip to Stevo.

"China's Guo Chuan back home after successful non-stop solo sail around the world"

Guo pops the bubbly back in Qingdao.  A fantastic effort in a 40-footer.

We met Guo and his boat, back in September when he was in Hong Kong just prior to his non-stop round the world single-handed, in his Class 40.  And now he's back home in Qingdao.  Well done to Guo!
From here...

QINGDAO, Shandong Province, April 5 (Xinhua) -- China's Guo Chuan sailed back home on Friday morning to become the first Chinese to successfully circumnavigate the globe singlehanded. Abroad his Class40 yacht, 48-year-old Guo travelled about 21,600 nautical miles in 138 days before he returned to his hometown of Qingdao, where he set off on November 18 last year. The once-in-a-lifetime journey saw Guo pilot his yacht across the Pacific Ocean and then down to Cape Horn off the coast of South Africa before crossing into the Atlantic Ocean. Guo, one of China's most accomplished sailors, previously became the first Chinese to traverse the Atlantic Ocean by himself and to take part in the Volvo Around-The-World Ocean race.

Sail-world story here.

Tucked in safely in San Fernando....

Congratulations to our mates on Antipodes (Geoff Hill) and Moonblue 2 (Peter Churchouse).  Antipodes has secured the double: Line Honours and first on IRC Overall.  Moonblue 2 has secured first in Premier Division and 4th IRC Overall.  Results here.
Meantime, not all are quite "tucked in"... there are still 13 boats out there, battling wind holes of various sorts and positions.  This morning there were three boats about 40 miles out going round in circles in zero wind (been there, done that...).
There are still some of those doing well and headed to SF, but a couple clearly suffering in local wind holes and almost zero boat speed.  We feel for them and wish them wind filling in!
Here's the 17:30 screen shot for the record:

Three Divisional leaders still on the water (those with crowns): from bottom:
Red Kite 2 (IRC 2), Hedonist (IRC Cruising, most westerly) and, Northeast,
Wonderwall (HKPN).  Tom Wiesinger's Allegro is most northerly.
The most SE are Premier Cruisers Tipsy Easy and Clove Hitch
17:30, 30 March

Moonblue 2 going great guns

Geoff Hill's Antipodes still leads on the double: Overall IRC and Line Honours
Pete Churchouse's Moonblue 2 is 65 miles behind, still leading Premier
Cruising (white w/crown), 3rd IRC and 3rd LH.  Peter Cremers' Shahtoosh is the red one north
of the rhumb, after tick-tacking north yesterday; 3rd PC, 4th LH.  The TP52, Standard
Insurance is second Line Honours immediately north of Antibodes.  She
tacked north early out of the harbour, and so was able to avoid the knock
and tacking back to the rhumb that the rest of the fleet suffered yesterday.
Talking Head still leads IRC2, and Crystal leads Cruising
09:30, 29 March

UPDATE: 15:00, Moonblue 2 and Shahtoosh now level-pegging on the water, both with 98 miles to go.  MB2 still first in Premier, Shahtoosh moved up to second, with Explorer, the new XC50 in third.  Meantime, Andipodes has less that one mile to go, still with the Line Honours and Overall Handicap double in hand. [probably finished by now, given the Race Tracker delay..]

Live on the YellowBrick Tracker here.  (I'm not sure how long these stay online; I wonder...).

Tactically the two front boats are in interesting positions: Antipodes is harder on the breeze, currently 40TWA, while Standard Insurance north is travelling freer, about 70 TWA, and has slightly better boat speed at last checking.  Distance to finish between them: 20Nm.  If breeze clocks right a bit more, will favour the TP, though it seems to be sailing into a hole (4-5 knots) that doesn't extend down to Antibodes. So should be interesting and maybe close finish sometime later today. [current rough estimates: they'll be two hours apart, Antibodes first..]

At last checking of tracker: Moonblue 2 doing 9 knots in 11 knots of breeze at a TWA of about 55-60 degrees, so clearly revelling in the light-tight reaching conditions.  Antipodes and the TP52 are both doing a touch over 10 knots. (Can't help wondering how Xena would be doing, as do G&A in a comment to yesterday's post).

Winds 070-080, 10-12 knots.  Wonder if there'll be the usual "Luzon Hole"?...

PS: sometime and regular Xena crew: "Bucket" is aboard Moonblue 2; Stevo and TC aboard Shahtoosh.

Wheeer's Xena? And San Fernando Race

Some folks have asked why Xena's been so long on the Hard.  Simple answer: Gear Box. On the way back from Phuket, 8 days out of Hong Kong, she caught a huge lump of fishing net, which stopped the propeller dead, and mashed the gear box.  It's taken all this time to fix: first to try to locate spare parts, then finding that one of the parts was going to take another 45 days to get to us, so we ordered a brand new gear box, which arrived just a few days ago -- from Australia -- and was only finally installed yesterday.  Today she's back in the water on her mooring at the RHKYC.
So.... even if we'd wanted to, we couldn't have done the SFR... Pity, really, as there's a good Premier Cruising Fleet, and the two Warwicks are having a good battle towards the front of the fleet: Pete Churchouse's 61' Moonblue 2, and Peter Cremers' new 75' Warwick, Shahtoosh. [Entry list]
Yesterday's race start, 13:30, from in front of the Club...

Cloudy, light rain,  5-10 knots start.
13:30, 27th March

Some screen shots [from Yellow Brick tracker].  Click "Read more" for the screen shots...

The Xena Blog brings you breaking news: Flying Squid

Oceanic squid flying up to 100 ft, in the Pacific Ocean. Photo: AFP/Getty

 Rather have one of these fellas land in the boat than flying fish....

From The Telegraph:

The mollusc propels itself out of the ocean by shooting a jet of water at high pressure, before opening its fins to glide at up to 11.2 metres per second, Jun Yamamoto of Hokkaido University said.

Olympic Gold medallist Bolt averaged 10.31 metres a second when he bagged gold in London last year.

"There were always witnesses and rumours that said squid were seen flying, and we have proved that it really is true," Yamamoto told AFP.

Yamamoto and his team were tracking a shoal of around 100 oceanic squid in the northwest Pacific 600 kilometres (370 miles) east of Tokyo, in July 2011.

As their boat approached, the 20 centimetre (8-inch) creatures launched themselves into the air with a powerful jet of water that shot out from their funnel-like stems. More...

Happy New Year of the Snake..."patience and steady progress"...

River Snake,  from Lorenzo Duque on the "Foreign Students in China 1973-79"
Facebook page. (I was one, in 1976-77)

Happy New Year of the Snake to all Friends of Xena and motley folk that pass by this site.  A Snake year is characterised by "patience" and "steady progress"....

From regular Xena crew Grant and Iris (aka "Grunta" and "Splash") in New Zealand:

Dear Peter Jing and Families

Gong Xi Fa Cai

Wishing you Guys a Happy and Prosperous New Year 2013  .... year of the Snake.

Enjoying Summer weather down here ..great sailing .. long walks .. Picnics with Family about for Waitangi Day Celebrations.

  

Euroyacht Newsletter this morning quoted:

hark, now hear the sailors cry,

smell the sea, and feel the sky,

let your soul and spirit fly,

Into the Mystic.

(track by - Van Morrison)

Best Wishes As Always

Grunta and Splash!

Katusha "on fire"

Katusha leading the fleet downwind - 2013 RC44 Oman Cup -  RC44 Class/MartinezStudio.es 

Regular Xena crew, Matt Kelway (aka "G"), is bowman on RC44 Katusha above, in the Oman Cup.
From the Sail-World website:

Katusha (RUS) were on fire and dominated the day winning the first two races and making a great recovery in the last to finish third, even after picking the un-favoured left side up the first beat and being buried at the top mark. 
Steve Howe is at the helm of Katusha this week, standing in for owner Gennadi Timchenko, he put their day into perspective.
'Yesterday was a good day and we tried to keep the same plan for the fleet racing today, get a good clean start, sail the shifts and get around the race course ahead of the fleet. It’s one design sailing at its best, you have your good days, your bad days and it’s going to happen when you have a bad race like we almost had in race three, but you just have to focus and minimise the risk.' 

Hat-tip to Stevo for the news.

Cadillac and Bare Essentials Clean up....

What a Grand prize! Grant and Iris heft the trophy...

Bare Essentials, a 55' Robinson stripped out racer

From Grant, this morning:

Hi Peter and Jing

Hope this finds you well and happy.

We have enjoyed a Fabulous B.O.I. Sailing Week - perfect weather and a great result for "Cadillac"

1st Online and 1st PHRF every race. PHRF handicap is a National measured handicap system like IRC but also incorporates a performance aspect relative to all other N.Z. Race Yachts and is revalidated yearly.  General Handicap is a very arbitary local club handicapping system which "Cadillac" is always handicapped out of these days because of her race history.

Having won our division at BOI Sailing Week we then swapped yachts from "Cadillac" to "Bare Essentials" the 55ft Robinson Design for the annual Waitangi, Bay of Islands to Whangaroa Harbour Race  approx 35nmiles.

Turned out to be a very fast race (top speed 24.8knts)  with us taking out line and handicap honours again as well as smashing the standing time record, reducing it to 2hours 35 min, from the previous 3hours 25min set by the TP52 "Kia Kaha" 

So Big Celebrations and lots of hangovers following morning.

Weather has turned a little nasty now .. 35knts from the South, so we have left "Bare Essentials" in the Marina at Whangaroa, came home by car 'til the weather improves .. then we will go back and bring her down the coast to Whangarei where she is normally moored.

All the Best for now

Grant and Iris

Cadillac roars on the water

Cadillac lifts her skirts..

Regular Xena crew Grant and Iris are racing their Cadillac, a Beale 9.6m, in Islands Racing 2 Division of The Bay of Islands Sailing Week.
In Race One Day One, they creamed the opposition by over half an hour on the water, and got 1st corrected in PHRF inshore, 4th corrected on General Handicap.
Well done to Grunter, Splash and crew!
Results here.
Key sponsors are our mates at North Sails...

UPDATE (26 Jan): Grant, Iris and crew on Cadillac finished the race week of three Islands courses with three Line Honours, First in PHRF and Fourth corrected in General Handicap.  Great job guys! Series results here.

Adria Australis: another blast from the past

Back in September 2011 I posted a piece on the Clipper Race, and made a passing reference to Adria Australis, an Alan Buchanan 49' steel sloop built in 1966 on which I'd made a passage delivery from Hobart to Adelaide, via the SW Cape of Tasmania.  That led to contact from Tim Simpson from Adelaide, who'd sailed on Adria in the 80s.  So I posted about that, with some piccies from 1983, here.
Then, just last week, an email from Mark Jones, who had been with us on Adria on that very trip, when we sailed into a major storm, with winds of over 70knots, were knocked down, fell off a wave which dented the forward port side of the boat, damaged the engine, and, in retrospect, nearly did for us, on that savage lee shore, with "many uncharted black rocks" as the Pilot says....
A bit of to-and-froing of emails with Mark, are added to comments section of the earlier post here.
Mark asked for some more photos from that voyage, and I'm doing that below....
First, Mark's email of 18th Jan:

Hi Peter,

As another year started I got to thinking about what I was doing 30 years ago.  Sue, my partner at the time, and I were on board Adria Australis with Lachlan, Ant, Jan and you from Hobart to Strahan.  I Googled a bit and found an ad from when Adria was for sale and read your “Big Waves Tip Yacht” blog – in fact I think that’s me in one of the photos.  The whole trip is still pretty clear in my memory.  If you fancy a bit of a catch up it might be fun.

Xena looks pretty impressive.  There must be a story or two there!

All the best,

Mark

Mark Jones
Welsh Produce Manager/Rheolwr Cynnyrch Cymru
Rural Regeneration Unit/Uned Adfywio Gwledig

Mark then...., January 1983, somewhere off Tasmania....

... and now, Welsh Produce Manager at the RRU.

Sue, at SW Cape. We're about to head into the storm. Nothing in the pictures
I have can give a true idea of the fury we met round the corner.

Being towed into Macquarie Harbour, Strahan, about four days later.
The entrance is really narrow and we'd had no engine for the four days
up the west coast after the knowdown off Port Davey, SW Cape.

Sue drying out the gear in Strahan

"Cowboy", one the fisherfolk who met us, all kindly and friendly.
Here he steers us up the Gordon River on a look-see

"Cowboy's" fishing boat.

Cowboy, Jan, Skipper Ant Harry and ??..

Bay of Islands Tall Ships and Classics

"Black Panther".  Click on photo to go to video

Thanks to Iris for the link to the YouTube of the 5th January Tall Ships and Classics race in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand.  Iris and Grant take part on "Black Panther" a Spencer 64' (screen shot above).
BTW: I note that the first boat mentioned in the video on-water action is a Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter called.... Iris....(at 1:50).
Grant says: "Great Day enjoyed by all again this year."

Xena arrives

Xena drifts in, 4:35pm yesterday.  Being pushed by Benny in Moonblue 2's
RIB, on the port quarter, as engine not usable....
Kowloon in the background, IFC (108 floors) on left.  Lovely sunset.
(Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, Kellett Island)

Benny (Moonblue 2), Oscar ("Junior"), Noel, June (Ffreefire), and Grant
dockside yesterday afternoon, with welcome drinks in hand

Grant, Noel and Oscar left Phuket on 12th December, so a 4-week trip back to Hong Kong, a lot of it tough, against the NE monsoon, with 40+ knot headwinds (gusting 50+ ...), for days, big waves and countercurrents.... As Iris says in her comment :
"8.30p.m. here N.Z. (23DegC) I'm so excited "Xena" and the Boyz at R.H.K.Y.C. safe and sound .. such a Looooooooong Journey .. Well! it's Cheers!!!! to Grant, Noel, Oscar and the Seafaring Warrior Princess "Xena". ... Iris xx"
Issue with the engine is that it revs in neutral, but not when in gear.  Not sure what the problem is.  They were without it for the last eight days, hence sailing all that way. ("heaps of fuel left", says Grant...).
Cheers again to Grant and the boyz for a fantastic delivery, well done to all!

Delivery: approaching home

Just south-east of the Limas, about 30 miles to go, at 10:01 this morning.

Battling NNE breezes of up to 20knots, and chilly here: 13 C, no doubt way chillier on board....
They should be berthing mid afternoon-ish.  Have spoken to Roger and Simon at the Boatyard, to prepare in case they still don't have working engine by the time they get to the Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club, at Causeway Bay.
Have also sent message via Satphone and just now with local mobile phones, as they should be in range.... haven't heard from them yet.
LATER (11 Jan): got email from Grant yesterday afternoon:
Hi Peter
Thanks received your message
My phone receiving but not sending most likely needs top up
My plan is to have Benny from Moon Blue 2 bring their big rib out to marina entrance when we arrive (very slow no wind here could be a long time)
I will strap along side Xena and berth at the RHKYC jetty that way
Hopefully there is a berth by the fresh water hose as we need to do a big fresh water hose down get rid of all the salt on everything
Cheers Grant.